Legendary Actress Rita Moreno Talks to Lee Hawkins

7/31/2013 7:08PM

Legendary performer Rita Moreno, who will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Screen Actors Guild, talks to WSJ's Lee Hawkins about “West Side Story,” her rise as a pioneering Latina actress, her New York Times best-selling memoir, and more.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

I ... Ch Ch Ch ... the the the the the then ... he won an Oscar for best supporting actress for her role in West side story he said that we're on the we need to win a Tony and Grammy award ... to just learn to receive the lifetime achievement went from the screen actors ... I'd talk to her about her legendary career ... and her new York Times bestseller ... he got personal ... in his book it's called the life story you know that that that that that they don't most of them was in prison no idea saying that the people's stints on information ... I think so yes I think ... there were parts of the book for you admitted ... that ... it wasn't until you wrote the book that you're able to come now we're ... certain things ... dealing with the relationship with Marlon Brando ... some of the stereotyping that you experienced in your career ... why was it so important to bring ... out those very personal message ... to the ghetto as I is important because ... nobody was you said you had no idea who is on ... hand but more important is that ... my book covers ... up part of Hollywood that no longer exists ... this was a time when when down racism is really pretty bleak and it's not that anyone when you're on call each other names just the fact that you are Hispanic ... and a woman in her breasts ... right away put into a certain kind of ... a Spitfire kind of ... easy to be had ... kind of category ... that ... certainly really doesn't exist anymore ... we will always be bias ... I mean did anyone who things in any new data that is not sinking properly ... however it is is nowhere near as of late and as it is ... as it was then ... and a aam ... as I tend to say with respect to the Hispanic situation in films and TV until arisen job ... it was close the list ... watch with several keys ... when I was the young woman in Hollywood ... you really had this resistance to being constantly ... tight can ... I I resisted it but on the other hand I had to make the linen I had to buy food I had to pay the rent ... so my thinking was I will do this ... as long as I have to until somebody discoveries ... and actually have talent and I just have to flash my little ... bare shoulders around and you know state when gold hoop earrings and it's a very long time actually ... thinking of my middle name is perseverance I ... will ... fall down get up and ... the idea is to keep ... moving ... it was new was the mayor ... in GM was credited for discovering ... yes well actually his talent scouts ... only an a and and school recital ... you know when I was that I think I was sixteen years old ... Annie came backstage and showed my mother has current ... Dudley Wilkinson a name I will never forget ... and she she gave him by his company says it is time isn't right right now but to ... when it's right I will call you and will have Rosie to ... I meet ... Mr. Levy there ... sometime ... it's about six months later he called ... enemy Kelly Mayor was in town ... till you are asked to meet in the world of the Stanley Hotel penthouse ... number one we know what the world of history line is ... when you don't get out of the ghetto very much right right ... and the hotel is whether when to hotels for two years something no ... the weather there we went to the lobby we went to the man of the ... counter who said various ... said Mr. Mei Mei Mei was an ... Easter may I suspect the list ... and they said take the elevator again the learning here ... we don't know what button to him we'll see a button ... that makes any sense we get out of the elevated ... go back to the counter bonanzas ... Pete H penthouse ... and we went out and the elevator door opened into his sweet which was of course ... magnificence ... and there's the Wizards ... come ons it is you know that Phil was down there and MGM ... in more than that ... made with the studio that made all of the great musicals ... that was the studio that had Gene Kelly ... and to gtg Island ... and and down and Miller all these fabulous people ... and when he took one look at me I was trying very very hard in those times too ... I Emilee Elizabeth Taylor cuz there were no role models for me ... who was there ... I had my way since around ... to look like her ... having him down perfectly the higher grounds ... of course is an incredible purple July is when I'm anywhere to be seeking on me ... but he actually looked at me taught me for few minutes in the system tells them ... why she looks like a Spanish Elizabeth Taylor ... yes ... and I can tell you that I I floated out of there ... because the silly thereafter he said let's I know ... and I most days you can do that you could say ... was I was ... the worst happens and I was a test tax deduction ... it must and at that time to be that the on ... going to walk in ... and as ... I know it's a good as it was astonishing ... sink a kid from the ghetto ... walking into through the MGMT a scheme most beautiful wrought iron gates ... going to see them Kristen has already assigned her ... to a movie ... his name is Joe pass an IQ was when the second ... highest producers and you're the biggest one was around our country ... and I missed ... Mr. Joe pass and I can he was very swing his arm around me says one cannot show you around the Indian lunch ... and again you know keep thinking this little prayer even those that the ... the little guy ... and the first person introduces me to use colored people ... I mean no ... heart attack deal ... you see me do that experience ... after having a ... I'm pretty disorienting child ... well disorienting in the sense that I was born in Puerto Rico ... and I lived in Puerto Rico until I was ... fighting so ... my mother made this huge life changing decision she nimble when ... she divorced my father who was a colander ... not unusual particularly in those times ... and I ... that's already was amazing because it's a Catholic island ... Penney didn't do that she was ... the read very on ... edge that none of them on them ... mixing twenty ... something like that ... and she left knee after the divorce with my father and my little brother ... Seascope ... took a boat to New York City ... not really know where to English ... talk about courage ... and and and vision ... she got a job in iam ... sweatshop ... in Manhattan ... she stayed with them and in the end of the need to partner with other families ... she made another when she made enough money and have learned just a little bit more English and when right back to put Errico ... retreated to me and brought me back to the United States but it ... to answer your question the long way around ... it was confusing because I couldn't understand why ... you a Gleevec paradise which it was for me ... I was not happy to have left them ... beautiful beautiful little green islands ... and your brother ... my little brother Francisco was left behind her intent ... was to bring him at a later time ... but it never happens somehow or other ... he just never happened ... and you never got to see him ... get to see him again ... he was a skinny dark a little boy ... he was a luster coloring ... I was the Spaniard in the group ... my grandma was a Spaniard she was quite fair ... and it didn't look at all is on the condition of dislike casket of an American ... I have people colors and my family ... really it was very special time to read that you were ... standing ten feet away ... from Mark Martin is there any ... pain that I Scandinavians ... we are ignorant ... I have a dream speech ... I worry ... unbelievable to me I can see a big drop of sweat because it was say ... hello to you ... in DC that day ... and Bank of us ... the pool ... who are ... thousands and thousands of people ... many of women wearing the uniform ... of that particular campaign which was ... coveralls ... usually when children was ... I think is insisting he demanded today ... he was in my ... they are just that with this camera I it's it's you know at that time ... the significance of that mall oh absolutely real good ... I'm you know we know what I say we've ... we worry yet group ... of ... artists from Hollywood that ... Harry Belafonte put together ... Harry wanted very much for ... Dr came in everyone else to know that ... there were people there who really good here ... and I he deliberately picked ... all kinds somewhere directors some of my teachers ... I'm number of them are actors performance in the Davis I was sitting in a suit and Carol ... and we were all sitting this sweltering and just ... cheering ... our ... throats out a lot ... people know that that would be ... a moment that could advance the interests of black people in America ... but there was very little sad ... at that time a bow ... the Hispanic ... well one of the time had been defined ... the undefined because of who was saying of ... you says the Chavez didn't come to my RX ... were to later ... and that was is essentially about the Mexican farm workers ... so we never really had ... our ... Martin Luther King ... that we came to a debate raged ... on on the fray ... did you feel that that time though ... that you ... in the position that you were ... could be an advocate for ... his pants ... or any responsibility or even pressure said oh absolutely I get I did because just about that time I started to get ... very involved in politics ... local politics ... in Los Angeles ... I did go of the very earliest anti nuclear bomb ... I aam demonstrations ... I had heard along with many other people in Los Angeles that ... and the places where cows were feeding the grass ... was untainted with strontium ninety toxic ... chemical ... then got into the milk the cows therefore got into the milk of the baby is ... drinking ... and that bothered a lot of there's a lot ... and that's how I got involved actively ... in anything that was even time nominally ... Politico ... what you think of some of the younger ... Latina actresses that are prominent today that Ofcom behind you and have you heard from anyone know to say he ... I just wanna policy think U ... as a mentor ... now ... I'm number of times said Jennifer Lopez has ... actually got me up and very complementary way ... as an inspiration ... and I you know ... I think Rosie Perez ... but on the whole ... people don't do that ... I think you weren't ... the I may be so happy this someone else has suffered that much in on me ... I ... a sale people would also say I separate Wendy thank you very much is because is ... it sad two thousandnine doesn't mean that I haven't also suffered ... pain only hand ... but it's nowhere near ... in terms of ... the profession ... not like ... the profession ... is nowhere near as difficult as it was nowhere near ... you address stereotyping in racism and also some of the sexes ... in Hollywood you experience the the assumption that because you were ninety nine dealers sexy uneasy ... I was always an event that led to a cash ... from the time I was that sixteen ... in films and new worlds theory just very candid ... in revealing about some of your relationships you had with very famous and powerful man ... Marlon Brando Elvis Presley ... is one of the things about Marlon Brando it's in the public record on the Erie wounded person ... this is the thing Janet's person ... and I wasn't exactly on wounded either and you know ... the Stoxx essence came together and just ... exploded to be really addicted to each other and you know ... conditions of very very difficult to get rid of ... the Harry was in the year relationship ... he married to other women in the course of that relationship allow their children with them what was it that means you stay ... I loved him ... you know was a possessor of sets of love which is a whole ... nother saying ... I really need another half hour show that one ... but that the presence of the psychiatry Asst ... that the common theme ... to all of this is an ... these men were drawn to you ... when ... minute she that level of fame and well what are their biggest ... insecurities or problems ... that keep them from total happiness ... well I don't think Melloan Mylan Andrew got to trust women ... I'd I don't really learn about hell is this really to make any kind of supposition ... but I know that Mullen was the heart of the damage turns my return I mention of ... his mother was an alcoholic as father drank ... and I you know she disappointed can constantly over and over and over so ... he can guide the punishing women for having the capacity to do that ... to man ... and he kept punishing himself by finding women who are very often ... not reliable ... interesting yes in a U S indeed in ... tragic in the sense that ... it even drove you to attempt suicide twenty ten and did it was my way at ... I twisted and and I was sick as it was to try and ... that kind of humiliation and pain I just know how else to do it because I ... kept going back to him ... did you at the time we knew him out with people like Leonard Bernstein unit in the way for Martin Luther keen ... all of these ... people that ... of course went down to be ... iconic in the same way that you did ... did you know at that time that you are making history or that you were a part of it ... or not and you were with I haven't read whatever I e as in the making a website I worry about not at all ... it was a film that didn't have any sequins on the costumes and ... twisting in High operatic voices like that ... I thought was a great film ... but it is the people to find ... hardest ... to see our little guy but has no sequins and people are singing these weird places and ... the guys this post began singing ... when Bella next steps ... cool I thought nobody's going to show a ... yes ... it is celebrated its and fifty three cents ... and you don't even remember because ... you not caught up in on the indictment ... one final question ... what is it going it's me ... for Hollywood to change ... in a significant way ... to the point man ... those roles will be over ... I think I think it has to take the perseverance of the actors and actresses ... who I am in a position to speak out ... I'd I think it's going to take people like Morgan Freeman and ... Crosby and ... any number of key huge like film stars for instance ... to produce ... films ... what I think is very important is that the most in need just like Dell's Gazelle and analyzing ourselves ... that would be I think a mistake is it hard to get on the ownership sign the intrusion ... into the green light ... to Provincetown twelve years to sell fourth of July the movie ... which of course my mom to be a ... huge an enormous hit ... that's Oliver Stone he's white ... so ... it's a tough business ... so it will change something you just don't know how ... I'd probably not going to be around ... I ... to pee ... I'd like to see them ... play Lowell ... well even if you are you've done so much to contribute to it happening ... do you ... think to me she amazing story ... congratulations on the New York Times bestseller ... thinking and you hold it up ... and with Greta Moran on Lee Hawkins will see next ... it's ...